AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Texas House Democrats again broke quorum Tuesday, with a total of 95 members present — two fewer than Monday’s session.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows made the announcement from the dais that if the House still does not have a quorum by Friday, the legislature will sine die, or conclude the session, and that the governor will call another special session of the legislature.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced shortly after that if the legislature does sine die on Friday, he is prepared to call another special session immediately. In a news release, Abbott said the second special session will have the exact same 18-item agenda as the current session. That includes redistricting and flood response.
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“There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them. I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed,” Abbott said in the release.
Tuesday marks the ninth day of the quorum break. House Democrats have fled the state to halt business in the legislature and protest the proposed Republican congressional redistricting, which aims to draw as many as five new Republican seats ahead of the midterms.
House Bill 4, the new maps, was on the supplemental House calendar for Tuesday’s session.
The graphic below reflects which Democrats were present at each session of the House since the quorum break began. It has been updated with Tuesday’s attendance.
Burrows has signed civil arrest warrants for absent Democrats, and state officials have sent Department of Public Safety troopers to track down any members who may be in the state. Attorney General Ken Paxton has also filed lawsuits seeking to remove several members from their seats.
But Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison said these strategies do not go far enough, arguing Burrows should have prevented the quorum break from ever starting.
“This is an abject failure of the Republican leadership of the state of Texas, who could have prevented the quorum break from stopping they chose to help the Democrats, and they’re choosing to not force the Democrats to come back,” Harrison said. “It’s outrageous.”
Harrison suggested Abbott pledge to veto any bills sponsored by Democrats, and for the speaker to strip Democrats of their senior roles on some committees.
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“I’m fighting for the people that don’t work in this building, and not one of my constituents thought anything that was announced last week by our so called Republican Speaker was worth applauding, and the fact that my so called Republican colleagues were applauding that weakness was utterly embarrassing,” Harrison said.
The Democrats now face another choice of whether to continue the quorum break or to return for the second-called special session.
If the goal was to draw attention to the redistricting plan, hoping that other states would join the fight, that mission has largely been accomplished. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he plans to put a measure on the November ballot for voters to approve new congressional maps in California, putting their independent redistricting commission on pause. Other states — both Democratic and Republican — have discussed joining the redistricting fight.
But if the goal is to stop the maps entirely, the Democrats have a long road ahead. While some reports have emerged that Democrats plan to return home this weekend, three sources familiar with the situation said that is not currently the case.
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The maps need to be passed before the filing deadline in December to take effect before the 2026 midterm elections — unless the filing deadline, and ultimately the primary, is moved.
Jessica Huseman, deputy editor of Votebeat, said that is definitely a possibility.
“We could absolutely delay the primary. And that’s happened before in Texas history, that the primary has been delayed because the maps are delayed,” Huseman said. “We cannot delay the November federal election, but we can delay the primary as long as we want. And I don’t have any doubt that Governor Abbott has the political will to do that.”
Delaying the primary would leave election administrators with less time to prepare for the midterm elections, which Huseman said people should be aware of.
“I think that as the state sort of grapples with the fact that we’re living in all of this uncertainty, I think we should really appreciate how insane this is for election administrators who are don’t know where the lines are going to be drawn and don’t know how to prepare,” Huseman said.
